Shattered Masquerade
by Kokusho
Summary: Story of a newly embraced vampire and his trials in protecting the fragile masquerade against the Sabbat. Chapters 45 up.
1. The Enbrace

After he graduated from school with his masters in computer technologies, Marek Johnson was full of excitement of the big bucks he had anticipated that he would make at the high tech firm that had hired him. Instead he was filled with dread and disappointment as he was hired for a dull desk job at the computer company Initech housed in New York City. All he could do in his job was to fill out files and papers, and type reports on the zero work that he was doing. Hell, a computer could have done his job.

Marek himself was your typical male college graduate. Everyone that knew him would have told you that he was the best computer person possibly in the whole United States. Despite his well know position of being the local computer nerd, Marek was fairly well built. He went to the gym regularly and worked out with the guys that were on the college football team. When he had received his masters from the University of Southern California, and then had received a job offer almost immediately.

Being all excited as a school girl, Marek took the offer as soon as he got it, hoping it was his ticked to stardom in the computer world. Unfortunately, those aspirations were not met and so he was forced to do the stupid busy work that big companies always had. So he went on with the job, putting his brain on autopilot all day and receiving a paycheck every two weeks.

Marek lived in an apartment in the outskirts of the city, so he wasn't always in the damn hustle and bustle of the typical big city. His apartment was fairly nice, a one bedroom with a kitchen, living room, and bathroom. For his place he only had to pay three hundred a month for it, and being in New York that was a steal for a place like that.

When Marek got home was when his real job began. He would stay up all night and became a hacker for hire, or basically an internet mercenary. The job offers came through his dead drop e-mail, and then when he agreed and the payment went through, he would make the necessary changes. These jobs never got into to dangerous stuff. Hacking a school firewall to change a grade or steal information from another company for industrial espionage. But then his most challenging work came in the mail late one night, just as he was ready to take his power nap for the morning.

All the e-mail said was "Opportunity to change your life." And so naturally he was curious. The mailer said he was referred to Marek by one of his contacts and that he had some info that he wanted to get. So all he said was sure, and then quoted the price for the job. The next afternoon after work an envelope full of cash was in his mailbox, thus honoring his terms. So Marek then set out to hack the site that night.

The site he was linked to was called  and when he typed into the site, he got a typical webpage. The job was for him to change some info in one of the folders and that the caller had no idea what kind of internet security the site had guarding it.

All night he sat there trying to hack the site, but nothing he would try would work. It seemed whatever he tried, a hidden firewall would pop up or some kind of anti-virus would delete his plant inside the page. It soon became frustrating for him, because no page had ever taken this long for him. Hell, he had cracked the FBI database one day just for fun. But this site had some kind of unknown protection that he had just never seen or heard of. To top off the list of problems, his laptop had fried in his lap while trying to get into the database. Someone who was watching the site must have seen his work and got to his laptop first.

The next night after work he set after the site again. This time he had borrowed a friend's laptop that had almost every single kind of security measure known to man, so that he wouldn't be attacked while doing his hacking. Once again he was frustrated as everything he had tried failed on this site. He had begun to think what was guarding the database. Perhaps it could be some kind of advanced AI or a new computer defense system that another big company had recently developed. Whatever it was, Marek was sure that it was going down the next night, hell or high water.

So the next night he set to break down the security surrounding the database. He had almost given up hope at around three in the morning when he caught a lucky break. He had found a crack in the firewall and got into the pay dirt. With his chance he browsed through the folders looking for the info that he was supposed to change. Then he found the folder and opened it, and then almost cried at what he saw. Inside the folder there was a message saying "-Congratulations, you have successfully cracked out system."

A few nights later, Marek was so pissed at what he saw that he took no other job offers that week. Then he started to leave the house and go into the city and go drinking at the local bars. And there it was that he would stay, inside the bottle, wasting away because someone had played him for the fool. He didn't even look at the many women that would walk past him, looking at him with interest.

Finally about a week and a half after the hack, he was sitting in a corner booth at a small bar in the outskirts of town called, "Sunrise Bar and Grille" He ordered the drink that he had learned was now his favorite, shots of whiskey with a beer chaser, and began the new nightly ritual of getting completely plastered for the next morning. After three shots, he noticed that a very hot blonde woman kept staring at him the whole night, and then eventually walked over to where he was sitting.

She was completely gorgeous, with long flowing blonde hair and wearing a slender red dress with a slit up the one side. The way she had walked was also very enticing, and as she crossed the room she had received stares from all the guys in the bar. Hell, she could have been straight out of any man's dreams. Then she sat down next to Marek and started up a conversation.

"My, aren't you the handsome one," she said to him, staring into his eyes. It was almost as if he was mesmerized by her presence.

"What is your name," is all he managed to utter in reply.

"That's not really important. What is important is what your name is."

He turned around to look if she was in fact talking to him, and then said, "M-My name is Marek."

"Well then Marek, what do you think of me?"

He was stunned at his luck. He sat there silently praying that he would not screw this up. "Well, I think that, that you are stunningly beautiful."

She chuckled slightly at the remark, and flashed a look only she could have pulled off. A look of what appeared to him as if she wanted him and him alone. "Let's get out of here Marek. I know a great place where we could go to downtown."

He couldn't believe it. He was actually going to get with this beautiful woman who sat no more than three feet from him. "Sure thing. You just lead the way."

So they left the bar and he got into her car and they both drove down to a place in the heart of downtown called the Skyline Apartments. She led him upstairs to what he thought was her apartment on the sixth floor and unlocked the door. Inside it was decorated in a very plain fashion, except for a phone on the kitchen table and a chair across from a very old looking television set. She continued upstairs and so that was where he followed her. Upstairs was decorated in the same fashion, with the only convenience being the laptop sitting on the table in the landing.

They both went into her bedroom and he found it surprisingly done up, with the walls painted a light red color and black lights all around the room. The bed itself was covered with a cheap blanket made to look like leopard skin. Marek just stood there in the doorway as she walked to the bed and lay down, not taking her eyes off of him. She then took off the red dress that she had on at the bar to reveal what most men on the planet would consider the perfect body. It was all too much for Marek as he could do nothing but stare at her with an utmost amazement.

She looked at him again and motioned him over with her finger. He could do nothing but comply with her demand and so he went over and lay down next to her. She crawled over to him on hands and knees and then lay over top of him. He did nothing but lay there as she started to unbutton his shirt. Marek still could not believe his luck for this night so he decided to just let her do whatever she was going to. She then went down a little further and unzipped his pants and started the night's events. The two of them went all night, doing almost everything imaginable. Finally at almost four in the morning, Marek looked over at the clock in between one of their sessions and decided that even though it was heavenly, he had to leave. Before he got up she crawled overtop of him and whispered something in his ear.

"Let me show you something."

Marek woke up with a massive headache the next morning. His head felt as though someone had driven a Mack truck through it, and the constant pounding was almost unbearable. He sat up and then just realized where he was and what he did all night. Scratching his hair he looked around the room and found a clock on the dresser next to him. But something didn't make sense to him, because the clock read that it was nine o' clock at night. He was there all morning, and he missed work. Not that it mattered to him, the work that was. His boss would notice his missing work, but he never cared about that job anyways.

Marek stumbled out of the room and looked around the apartment, but he couldn't find where the woman from last night was. He walked down the stairs to the first floor of the apartment, and finally found the woman, in the main room sitting down in the chair. She saw him coming down and looked up at him with severe interest. They both stood there staring at each other when finally Marek was the one to break the silence.

"What the hell is going on?"

She just smiled at him, and replied, "All in due time. You will know what you want to know when the time is right."

Marek stood there, dumbfounded at the words. What the hell did she mean by that? "Why did you keep me here all day?"

"It was for your own protection. You must know, it is not safe for you to go outside during the day."

"Why not?"

"Quite simply, it is because the sunlight is fatal to you, as it is to me and the rest of my colleagues."

None of her words made any sense to Marek. He was confused about what she meant. "What the hell did you do to me?"

Now she smiled an almost devilish smile at him, "You, my childe, have been embraced and you are now one of us."

"What in the fuck are you…?"

"You see, I know it is hard to accept at first, but you are now a creature of the night, one bound to the darkness and eternally damned in the eyes of whatever god you have prayed to before."

"W-What in the fuck are you?"

"We go by many names in many cultures, but I believe we are most commonly referred to as vampires. We along with many other creatures of the night that you only hear about in human fairy tales do exist. Almost every story you have ever heard about werewolves, mummies, zombies, and any other demon of the night is true."

It was all too much for Marek to take. It couldn't be real, could it? He just knew that someone would pop out of a closet or something and say 'gotcha'. "This is all a joke, right?"

"I am afraid not, but I can reassure you. Our condition is not as bad as you may think it to be. This curse is also a gift that is different for all. You cannot tell me honestly that something like eternal life is what no man wants. We also have abilities that you would call supernatural, and each one of us has different abilities."

"If this is all true, then why have I never heard about any of this before? Why don't we know about this kind of thing?"

"Mortals do not know of our existence because if they knew, we would most certainly be wiped out. We only survive because mortal man is ignorant of our presence. We are governed by a body of elders who ensure that something called the masquerade is enforced. This masquerade is quite simply our kind hiding our condition from the public eye. If you break the masquerade, then everything we worked for is gone, and you would have the wrath of our kind as well as human hunters after you."

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"If you are ready to accept what I have told you, we shall go to the mansion that we control in the city. This mansion is what we use as a haven and a gathering place. I think you will find the answers to all of your questions there."

So she got up out of the chair and put on a black trench coat and walked over to the door. He just followed her over to the door and together they headed out to the streets. She hailed a cab and opened the door for Marek to get in. Before he got in though he turned around to face her.

"What is your name?"

She just looked at him for a minute and said, "My name is Maria, and I doubt if we shall meet again in the near future."

He sat down and watched as she closed the door and walked down the alley. The driver didn't ask him his destination, so he assumed she had told him where to go. All Marek could do now was sit and wait to arrive at the place where he was now destined to go to. It was amazing to him how his life had changed so dramatically in the course of one night.


	2. New Ways

After he graduated from school with his masters in computer technologies, Marek Johnson was full of excitement of the big bucks he had anticipated that he would make at the high tech firm that had hired him. Instead he was filled with dread and disappointment as he was hired for a dull desk job at the computer company Initech housed in New York City. All he could do in his job was to fill out files and papers, and type reports on the zero work that he was doing. Hell, a computer could have done his job.

Marek himself was your typical male college graduate. Everyone that knew him would have told you that he was the best computer person possibly in the whole United States. Despite his well know position of being the local computer nerd, Marek was fairly well built. He went to the gym regularly and worked out with the guys that were on the college football team. When he had received his masters from the University of Southern California, and then had received a job offer almost immediately.

Being all excited as a school girl, Marek took the offer as soon as he got it, hoping it was his ticked to stardom in the computer world. Unfortunately, those aspirations were not met and so he was forced to do the stupid busy work that big companies always had. So he went on with the job, putting his brain on autopilot all day and receiving a paycheck every two weeks.

Marek lived in an apartment in the outskirts of the city, so he wasn't always in the damn hustle and bustle of the typical big city. His apartment was fairly nice, a one bedroom with a kitchen, living room, and bathroom. For his place he only had to pay three hundred a month for it, and being in New York that was a steal for a place like that.

When Marek got home was when his real job began. He would stay up all night and became a hacker for hire, or basically an internet mercenary. The job offers came through his dead drop e-mail, and then when he agreed and the payment went through, he would make the necessary changes. These jobs never got into to dangerous stuff. Hacking a school firewall to change a grade or steal information from another company for industrial espionage. But then his most challenging work came in the mail late one night, just as he was ready to take his power nap for the morning.

All the e-mail said was "Opportunity to change your life." And so naturally he was curious. The mailer said he was referred to Marek by one of his contacts and that he had some info that he wanted to get. So all he said was sure, and then quoted the price for the job. The next afternoon after work an envelope full of cash was in his mailbox, thus honoring his terms. So Marek then set out to hack the site that night.

The site he was linked to was called  and when he typed into the site, he got a typical webpage. The job was for him to change some info in one of the folders and that the caller had no idea what kind of internet security the site had guarding it.

All night he sat there trying to hack the site, but nothing he would try would work. It seemed whatever he tried, a hidden firewall would pop up or some kind of anti-virus would delete his plant inside the page. It soon became frustrating for him, because no page had ever taken this long for him. Hell, he had cracked the FBI database one day just for fun. But this site had some kind of unknown protection that he had just never seen or heard of. To top off the list of problems, his laptop had fried in his lap while trying to get into the database. Someone who was watching the site must have seen his work and got to his laptop first.

The next night after work he set after the site again. This time he had borrowed a friend's laptop that had almost every single kind of security measure known to man, so that he wouldn't be attacked while doing his hacking. Once again he was frustrated as everything he had tried failed on this site. He had begun to think what was guarding the database. Perhaps it could be some kind of advanced AI or a new computer defense system that another big company had recently developed. Whatever it was, Marek was sure that it was going down the next night, hell or high water.

So the next night he set to break down the security surrounding the database. He had almost given up hope at around three in the morning when he caught a lucky break. He had found a crack in the firewall and got into the pay dirt. With his chance he browsed through the folders looking for the info that he was supposed to change. Then he found the folder and opened it, and then almost cried at what he saw. Inside the folder there was a message saying "-Congratulations, you have successfully cracked out system."

A few nights later, Marek was so pissed at what he saw that he took no other job offers that week. Then he started to leave the house and go into the city and go drinking at the local bars. And there it was that he would stay, inside the bottle, wasting away because someone had played him for the fool. He didn't even look at the many women that would walk past him, looking at him with interest.

Finally about a week and a half after the hack, he was sitting in a corner booth at a small bar in the outskirts of town called, "Sunrise Bar and Grille" He ordered the drink that he had learned was now his favorite, shots of whiskey with a beer chaser, and began the new nightly ritual of getting completely plastered for the next morning. After three shots, he noticed that a very hot blonde woman kept staring at him the whole night, and then eventually walked over to where he was sitting.

She was completely gorgeous, with long flowing blonde hair and wearing a slender red dress with a slit up the one side. The way she had walked was also very enticing, and as she crossed the room she had received stares from all the guys in the bar. Hell, she could have been straight out of any man's dreams. Then she sat down next to Marek and started up a conversation.

"My, aren't you the handsome one," she said to him, staring into his eyes. It was almost as if he was mesmerized by her presence.

"What is your name," is all he managed to utter in reply.

"That's not really important. What is important is what your name is."

He turned around to look if she was in fact talking to him, and then said, "M-My name is Marek."

"Well then Marek, what do you think of me?"

He was stunned at his luck. He sat there silently praying that he would not screw this up. "Well, I think that, that you are stunningly beautiful."

She chuckled slightly at the remark, and flashed a look only she could have pulled off. A look of what appeared to him as if she wanted him and him alone. "Let's get out of here Marek. I know a great place where we could go to downtown."

He couldn't believe it. He was actually going to get with this beautiful woman who sat no more than three feet from him. "Sure thing. You just lead the way."

So they left the bar and he got into her car and they both drove down to a place in the heart of downtown called the Skyline Apartments. She led him upstairs to what he thought was her apartment on the sixth floor and unlocked the door. Inside it was decorated in a very plain fashion, except for a phone on the kitchen table and a chair across from a very old looking television set. She continued upstairs and so that was where he followed her. Upstairs was decorated in the same fashion, with the only convenience being the laptop sitting on the table in the landing.

They both went into her bedroom and he found it surprisingly done up, with the walls painted a light red color and black lights all around the room. The bed itself was covered with a cheap blanket made to look like leopard skin. Marek just stood there in the doorway as she walked to the bed and lay down, not taking her eyes off of him. She then took off the red dress that she had on at the bar to reveal what most men on the planet would consider the perfect body. It was all too much for Marek as he could do nothing but stare at her with an utmost amazement.

She looked at him again and motioned him over with her finger. He could do nothing but comply with her demand and so he went over and lay down next to her. She crawled over to him on hands and knees and then lay over top of him. He did nothing but lay there as she started to unbutton his shirt. Marek still could not believe his luck for this night so he decided to just let her do whatever she was going to. She then went down a little further and unzipped his pants and started the night's events. The two of them went all night, doing almost everything imaginable. Finally at almost four in the morning, Marek looked over at the clock in between one of their sessions and decided that even though it was heavenly, he had to leave. Before he got up she crawled overtop of him and whispered something in his ear.

"Let me show you something."

Marek woke up with a massive headache the next morning. His head felt as though someone had driven a Mack truck through it, and the constant pounding was almost unbearable. He sat up and then just realized where he was and what he did all night. Scratching his hair he looked around the room and found a clock on the dresser next to him. But something didn't make sense to him, because the clock read that it was nine o' clock at night. He was there all morning, and he missed work. Not that it mattered to him, the work that was. His boss would notice his missing work, but he never cared about that job anyways.

Marek stumbled out of the room and looked around the apartment, but he couldn't find where the woman from last night was. He walked down the stairs to the first floor of the apartment, and finally found the woman, in the main room sitting down in the chair. She saw him coming down and looked up at him with severe interest. They both stood there staring at each other when finally Marek was the one to break the silence.

"What the hell is going on?"

She just smiled at him, and replied, "All in due time. You will know what you want to know when the time is right."

Marek stood there, dumbfounded at the words. What the hell did she mean by that? "Why did you keep me here all day?"

"It was for your own protection. You must know, it is not safe for you to go outside during the day."

"Why not?"

"Quite simply, it is because the sunlight is fatal to you, as it is to me and the rest of my colleagues."

None of her words made any sense to Marek. He was confused about what she meant. "What the hell did you do to me?"

Now she smiled an almost devilish smile at him, "You, my childe, have been embraced and you are now one of us."

"What in the fuck are you…?"

"You see, I know it is hard to accept at first, but you are now a creature of the night, one bound to the darkness and eternally damned in the eyes of whatever god you have prayed to before."

"W-What in the fuck are you?"

"We go by many names in many cultures, but I believe we are most commonly referred to as vampires. We along with many other creatures of the night that you only hear about in human fairy tales do exist. Almost every story you have ever heard about werewolves, mummies, zombies, and any other demon of the night is true."

It was all too much for Marek to take. It couldn't be real, could it? He just knew that someone would pop out of a closet or something and say 'gotcha'. "This is all a joke, right?"

"I am afraid not, but I can reassure you. Our condition is not as bad as you may think it to be. This curse is also a gift that is different for all. You cannot tell me honestly that something like eternal life is what no man wants. We also have abilities that you would call supernatural, and each one of us has different abilities."

"If this is all true, then why have I never heard about any of this before? Why don't we know about this kind of thing?"

"Mortals do not know of our existence because if they knew, we would most certainly be wiped out. We only survive because mortal man is ignorant of our presence. We are governed by a body of elders who ensure that something called the masquerade is enforced. This masquerade is quite simply our kind hiding our condition from the public eye. If you break the masquerade, then everything we worked for is gone, and you would have the wrath of our kind as well as human hunters after you."

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"If you are ready to accept what I have told you, we shall go to the mansion that we control in the city. This mansion is what we use as a haven and a gathering place. I think you will find the answers to all of your questions there."

So she got up out of the chair and put on a black trench coat and walked over to the door. He just followed her over to the door and together they headed out to the streets. She hailed a cab and opened the door for Marek to get in. Before he got in though he turned around to face her.

"What is your name?"

She just looked at him for a minute and said, "My name is Maria, and I doubt if we shall meet again in the near future."

He sat down and watched as she closed the door and walked down the alley. The driver didn't ask him his destination, so he assumed she had told him where to go. All Marek could do now was sit and wait to arrive at the place where he was now destined to go to. It was amazing to him how his life had changed so dramatically in the course of one night.


	3. First Tasks

The next night Marek made it over to the Skyline Apartment complex and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor where his apartment was. He opened the door with the key that was sent to him by the prince, and looked around the place. There was not much there at all, and it looked the same as the apartment that Maria took him to that night. Upstairs he saw his laptop on a small wooden desk in the landing. He walked over to it and saw a note sitting next to it. The note was written on a small yellow post-it note, and it said, "Password for your computer is 'sunrise'."

So Marek opened the laptop and was surprised at what he saw. There was no basic operating system like windows, just a black screen with links on the left side of the screen. There were three links in all, and they said 'e-mail', 'internet', and 'contacts'. So he decided to go to the e-mail and was prompted for his password. So he just punched in 'sunrise' and saw that he already had a few messages recorded on his inbox.

The first e-mail he saw was from Lodin himself. He opened it and saw the message, "I believe your new housing should be quite suitable. You have a small cash amount in the first national bank down the road. When you go there, make sure to speak with the cashier named 'Steve' and give him your name. He will make your withdraw for you, and you are free to do what you want with the cash. However I don't suggest you spend it on petty things that are no help to you. Save it for when you really need something in the future. –Lodin"

The second email was sent by someone he did not recognize, and in the subject line was the line, 'The game begins'. The entire message was one line, and it said, "The games have begun; a pawn has moved." There was no signature or anything, and when he ran a quick check of the e-mail, he couldn't pull an IP address. This was puzzling to him because he did not know anyone in this world, so the cryptic entry was something he could not figure out.

Finally the last message was from someone named Mercurio, and its subject line held, 'Need anything?' The message said, "Hey there. Heard about you from the higher ups. If you ever need anything, weapons, supplies, things like that, just head on over. I'm in an apartment down at the Empire Hotel. Getting what you need from me is a lot cheaper than getting it from a commercial store, that's for damn sure. –Mercurio"

Marek closed out the laptop and decided to get his cash so he could figure out what he needed and what he had to work with. So Marek put down the katana that he had been carrying from the mansion and stepped outside. He walked down the sidewalk, observing the people walking along, going about their lives. As he looked at them, he now understood their ignorance to the other world hidden in the darkness. So he just turned around and kept on walking through the crowds of people, heading to the First National Bank.

Inside the bank, it was pretty quiet because of the late time, as it was close to closing. The only people that were there were the few that were trying to get their checks cashed after a long day at work, or getting some money for a night out on the town. Walking down the aisles, he finally saw a cashier wearing a name tag that read 'Steve'. Calmly Marek just walked up to the counter and said, "My name is Marek, I'm here to make a withdrawal."

Steve looked up from his work and said, "New guy, right? Lodin told me to expect you. Come on down to my cubical, it's more quiet there."

So they walked through the maze of cubicles and finally arrived at Steve's desk. Marek sat down in one of the chairs, but Steve kept walking down to the vault so he could get Marek's cash. About five minutes later Steve returned with a large manila envelope that appeared to be pretty full. Steve pullet out a pen knife and cut the envelope open and emptied its contents onto his desk. Inside there were many bricks of cash as well as a white piece of paper. Steve grabbed the paper and began to read it.

"Inside this envelope is enough money to get you started for this new life. Enclosed here there should be two thousand dollars that you can use for future purposes. After your transaction is complete, have the bank shred this note and the envelope itself. I am sure Steve could do that for you. –Lodin"

"Well then sir, here is your money. You can count it if you wish but it is all there. As for the other instructions, you don't have to worry about the shredding, I will do that tonight. If you want, I can give you something to carry this all out in."

"Yes, of course, thanks."

"Well then hope it all turns out for you sir."

With that they shook hands and Marek walked out of there with a brown paper bag carrying all of the cash he had now. He tried to decide the best way to use it, but that other e-mail he received was interesting, so he figured he would go over and give that guy Mercurio a visit.

So Marek first stopped back at his apartment and put some of the cash away in the trunk that was on the first floor of his apartment. So he grabbed an old coat that was in the room's closet and put the rest of the money in his pocket for the trip down to Mercurio's. After his stop, Marek probably had thirteen hundred on him in cash. He walked over to the Empire Hotel complex, which really wasn't far from his apartment, just a few blocks down the street. Inside he convinced the clerk to give him Mercurio's apartment number so he could go see him. Marek knocked on the door, and then opened it to see a very lavish living place there. The place was covered in rich paintings, fine furnishings, and a crystal chandelier hung down from the ceiling.

"Next time, wait for me to open the door man, I damn near blew your head off. Your Marek I assume, so I guess you got my e-mail."

"Yeah. Nice place you got here."

"Well, I happen to like it. I tell ya it pays to be in my business, and with business connections like you guys, I'm set for life."

"I your e-mail, you told me you got it all here. So what have you really got for me to see?"

"You name it I got it. Weapons, munitions, heavy duty clothing, electronics, explosives, the works. So, what are you looking for? I bet you could use a new set of clothes. Those just don't look right for a person like you."

"What's wrong with them?"

"Let's just say they make you look like a pussy. You should try for a more intimidating look, kind of like a kick ass gangster. What do you think of a Heavy black trench coat, complete with gun holsters, ammo belts, and made of thick, black leather. Since I like you, I'll cut you a deal and sell it to ya for a hundred bucks. That's a steal my friend."

"You got my size?"

"What do you take me for man, Wal-Mart? Of course I got your size."

"Well then I'll take one. What have you got in the line of weapons?"

"Weapons, one of my specialties. I'm waiting on an order to come in now, but I've still got some colt .45's, pump action 12 gauge, I think I got an Uzi back there somewhere, and then there is my personal favorite, a McKlusky .50cal handgun. This gun is a thing of beauty. It is accurate, even at range and it packs one hell of a punch. I know you guys aren't as affected by bullets as mortals are, but this thing can still be deadly to you guys."

"Why do you say 'you guys'? What the hell are you?"

"Let's just say that I am a mutual friend of your kind. I ain't a mortal, but I'm no bloodsucker either."

"Whatever. How much for a colt?"

"Got em on sale today. I sell ya one for three hundred bucks. That also comes with four clips of ammo, since I am feeling generous."

"Well, then I'll take two of those then."

"My, what a customer." Mercurio handed over the merchandise Marek asked for as Marek peeled off a few bills from his stash to pay for it. "You know, if you ever need anything, just let me know. I can get almost anything you need, within reason of course."

"One more thing. Got a decent pair of shades?"

"Here, you can take these ones. Just got them in yesterday, brand new. Since you're a good customer though, take 'em for free."

"Thanks. Have a good night Mercurio."

"No problem."

Marek left the apartment wearing his new wardrobe, and had his new guns holstered in the coat. He wished he could see himself in a mirror, because he felt like he looked so bad ass. After the deal, Marek went back to his apartment and started surfing the internet, just trying to kill time. For time it seems he would have an eternity of.

A week went by and Marek did the best he could to blend into mortal society at night. He stood around most of the time, observing people and trying to figure out his whole role in the scheme of things. About midway through the week though, he started to get a feeling of hunger that was barely controllable. He knew what he had to do, so he found a mortal walking by himself in the street and lured him into one of the back alleys. When he started, and that fresh blood flowed into his mouth, it felt like euphoria, and it tasted so good, like a two hundred dollar bottle of champagne. After he was done, he waited for his target to retaliate, but he never moved. Marek figured there must be something in those teeth of his that put his victim into a state of unconsciousness.

Then after the week had passed, Marek checked his e-mail again and found one addressed to him from Lodin. It was labeled, 'First job', and he opened it quickly. Anything to break this dull monotony would be helpful. The e-mail went, "I see you have settled into your new life very well. It is time for your services to be called upon. What I need is for someone to enter a warehouse and hack into its computer system so we can place a virus that enables us to monitor it. This job can't be done on the outside because it is not connected to any outside internet source.

Our operatives have reported that the terminal that needs to be hacked is in one of the upper offices of the warehouse, and that there is very light security there at night time. What you need to do is place a device inside the processor so we can access the computer. Then you must hack the system itself to allow for the bug to move undetected. When you are doing this, remember that you must not be seen by the kine guarding the facility, and that you must not kill any of them. The device needed is in your mailbox. Don't let me down. –Lodin."

So he finally had something to do. From the sound of Lodin's instructions, it would be a fairly easy job as long as he could get past the security that they had there. He wondered though how he got his information on the building, like where the terminal was and what the security measures were. If someone was there to gather this information, then why couldn't they do this? Oh well, he couldn't complain. It was something to do. So Marek put on his trench coat and sunglasses, and took one of his colts just in case he would need it. So he went downstairs and checked the mailbox, and sure enough there was a small electronic device there with a little not attached to it.

"Just clip this onto the main circuit board in the processor."

He double checked what he had with him, and headed out to the warehouse. The place was a few miles away from the apartment complex, close to the docks out on the harbor. He stood outside of the building, behind a stack of crates near the entrance of the building. Outside he saw no guards, and the door itself had no kind of electronic protection on it. So he crept up slowly and silently and opened the door to let himself inside.

Inside the warehouse, he saw an entirely different scene that what was outside. There were guards regularly patrolling the walkways, and there was video surveillance everywhere. The warehouse itself held many crates and shelves full of all kinds of miscellaneous items. Then he saw the office that he had to get to, up above the many crates in the building. The only way to it was up a steel ramp that was undoubtedly guarded and watched. The first thing he had to do was to disable to cameras, so he wouldn't be seen on tape.

He started to creep along slowly down the aisles to find the security room. He stopped only to avoid being detected by one of the patrolling guards. What helped him was the fact that it was fairly dark in the building, hindering their vision. Finally he struck pay dirt as he found a door labeled 'Security'. He entered the room quietly and was confronted with almost two dozen video monitors at once. There was also a computer screen in the corner that he hoped controlled the entire systems for the building. He hacked the password and found the links to the systems.

First thing he did was turn the computer keystrokes off so that when someone reviewed the computer activity, nothing that he did would show up. Then he went right into the problem and turned the security cameras off. One by one the video monitors turned off as the cameras went offline. Finally, to make his job easier, Marek turned all power off to the warehouse so that it would pitch black.

Having completed his side task, Marek exited to room to see the guards looking around confused in the dark, but he could see fine. He crept along slowly so as to avoid the guards, and slowly worked his way back to the upstairs room. It took almost a half an hour, with him being careful enough so that he wouldn't draw attention to himself in the dark. Finally he arrived at the doorway into the upstairs rooms.

Inside, he found four computer terminals sitting there, each in its own little cubicle. He started working on the problem, hacking the computer closed to him, trying to find the one that he needed to go to. After searching the directories, he decided that the computer he needed was the one furthest from the door, overlooking the whole facility. He headed over to that terminal, being careful not to be seen through the windows. He hacked into the system and struck gold.

The terminal had all of the data that they needed to get, so he quickly went down to the processor itself and unscrewed the cover. He found the circuit board and attached the little devise on it. Then he quickly covered the processor back up and turned on the computer. Once the terminal was on and he was logged on again, he quickly hacked in and enabled the bug hidden inside the device. He also turned off the computer security so that it would go through the system unnoticed. It was all quite easy really. All he had to do then was enable the bug and get the hell out of there.

Having released the bug, he made sure that all the keystrokes were gone, and that what he did was undetectable. Satisfied that his job was done, Marek logged off the terminal and proceeded to exit the building. The guards as far as he could tell were still trying to turn the lights back on, but that was not going to happen for a long time until they got past the blocks he had put on there to give himself more time. He walked through the darkness, avoiding the guards and finally left the building.


	4. Odd Jobs

After the warehouse job, Marek made it back to the apartment and relaxed the rest of the night. Finally the night turned to day and Marek spent that time up in his bedroom in a state of comatose, waiting for the night to come. Finally, when the sun set, he awoke and checked his computer for new e-mails. There were two new messages in the inbox, one from the same person he received one from the first night, and another from Lodin. He figured he would open the one from Lodin first, because he wasn't up for trying to solve a riddle this morning.

Lodin's message said, "Good job with the warehouse. The Nosferatu are monitoring the information the bug is giving us now, and it is all in good hands. Not bad for a first job. As a token of appreciation, there is a small sum left in your mailbox for you. But that job is in the past, and I have another one for you. This one will undoubtedly require a little more, brute force, shall we say.

There is a meeting in a small house down in the slums of the city. The meeting is actually for some of the most important and well known hunters in our city. I suggest you visit Mercurio to pick up some supplies for this, or at least practice your disciplines first. Your objective at the house is a hunter named Bach, who is the head of their operations in this city. They don't know much about us, but they do know how to kill and torture us, which is enough for them to know. With them out of the way, it will be a little easier to operate within the city without their intervention. –Lodin"

The second message was titled with another cryptic message, entitled 'The Sacrificial Lamb'. The message however was a little longer than the other one that he received from this person. The message said, "Oh what tangled webs we weave, so in order to deceive. The shepherd sends its lambs to the slaughter, and the pawn will be sacrificed. If the lamb survives, we may speak face to face." This message intrigued him, because the message undoubtedly talked about him, but why would Lodin do what the message implies. He figured that he could get some answers when they would meet after this hunter job.

Once again, he put on his trench coat and this time loaded up on all the weapons he had. He holstered both colts and carried all the ammunition that he had for them, ten clips total. He also had the katana that was given to him strapped onto his back with the handle up so he could easily reach it. Finally, he put the shades on and completed the image. He then went down to the mailbox to collect what was left there for him, and found the address of the house and an envelope containing two hundred dollars. He also figured that he had all the supplies that he needed for the assault, so going to Mercurio's for ammunition was unneeded.

He didn't want any stupid questions from cab drivers or people on other public transportation, so Marek decided that the best way to get there was to walk along the back alleys. He was in New York, but any muggers there would get a big surprise if they decided to fuck with him. He traveled the alleyways for about five miles until he reached the slums of this part of the city. All of the houses here were little two story shacks that were terribly run down. Quickly and quietly he walked down the sidewalks until he spotted his target house.

It was not hard to notice, because there were some pretty high end cars sitting outside of it, and they are just way too out of place for this neighborhood. Also there were several guards outside of the house, and from what he could tell a few of them had automatic weapons. Overall, he had little chance of getting in there without being shot, let alone getting by without being noticed.

Slowly Marek moved forward toward the house, hiding behind cars, garbage cans, whatever he could find. He was about ten yards from the outside guards, and he as trying to hear their conversation. Peering up from the car he was behind, he could see only two sentries standing outside now, the other ones must have gone inside to hear the meeting. They weren't saying much, just standing around, and one of them turned around to light a cigarette. He figured that was his chance, and he quickly snuck up on the other guy and snapped his neck, instantly killing him. The other guy turned around and before he could say a word Marek drew his katana and cut the guy in half.

Now that he was able to move freely outside, Marek gathered his thoughts and tried to find the best plan of attack. He figured that the actual target would be up on the top floor, but getting there from the bottom up would be packed with the other hunters in the building. Somehow climbing up there would be almost impossible, since there was nothing to get a grip onto if he tried to climb. The only option was to hack his way up, so he had to be at the top of his game. Marek walked up the steps and stood right in front of the doorway. He reached in his coat and readied both of his colts, preparing the assault.

Holding both guns out, he kicked the door down and saw four men standing in the entryway, and they stared at him with complete surprise. Quickly he fired a bullet into the head of each one, killing them all. The commotion caused others in the house to stir, and so four more came after him from the room to his right. Again he didn't give them time to fire their weapons as he fired rapidly at them, killing them all, but he also finished the clips. He dropped the guns on the floor and drew his sword, anticipating the fun to really begin. He checked each room on the bottom floor, and found no one else, so the rest of the hunters here were upstairs at the meeting. It must have been loud enough to drown out the noise of the guns.

He quietly walked up the stairway, holding his sword at the ready, and came to the top finding no one there. There were three doors here, one to each side and another in front of him. First door he went to was right in front of him, and he found two hunters laying there sleeping. Not wanting to cause more commotion, he quietly killed both by snapping their necks in their sleep. Next he went over to the door that was on his right at the top and found five guys standing there, leaning over a table. One of them saw him at the entrance and raised the alarm.

They went to pull their guns, but Marek was already on the move. The whole world seemed to go slower as he used his Celerity to move faster than they could move. He dispatched the hunter closest to him, and then cut down the one next to him, leaving three. Even at his speed, they had their guns pointed at him and were just starting to fire. Marek could see the bullets coming at him, and he moved as fast as he could to avoid being hit. One of the bullets just grazed his back, but he hardly felt the wound at all.

Going over to those three against the wall, he quickly started to hack and slash the three of them. When he was done, they were on the floor, some of them missing various limbs and body parts. He looked at himself and saw he had been hit twice more, but the wounds felt insignificant. He picked up one of the dead hunters guns and holstered his sword again. The gun he picked up was a 9mm pistol, and it would be good enough to finish the job. He checked the magazine and found a full clip of seven bullets, so he figured that would be enough.

He pressed his ear against the last door and he could barley hear the men talking in there, so he thought they weren't fully aware of what had been going on in there. With the pistol drawn, he kicked the door down and saw eight people standing in the room. One more than the number of bullets he had. He would have to save Bach for last. Quickly he fired and killed the three closest to him with three bullets, and then they began to fire back. Marek just stood there calmly and took out the other four with the remaining bullets in his gun. At last the only two in the room were Bach and himself, and Back stood there with his gun drawn, pointed right at Marek's head.

"Go ahead, shoot me. You've seen what happens. It's just a waste of a bullet old man."

"I will send your damned soul back to the lake of fire where you will burn for eternity!"

"Whatever old man," Marek said as he dropped the pistol. As his gun hit the floor Bach raised his and shot Marek in the side of the head. Marek staggered from the force of the bullet, but he remained standing. "Damnit that fucking hurt you crazy bastard. I think that it is time to die old man." Marek drew his sword and walked up to Bach. Bach just stood there, glaring into Marek's eyes with nothing but pure hatred, even as he ran the katana through him.

Marek pulled out the sword from Bach and let the old man fall to the ground. He wiped off the blade on Bach's clothes, and sheathed his sword. Then Marek calmly walked down the stairs and grabbed the guns that he dropped down there. He holstered the guns and walked out the door.

By the time he got to his apartment again, his wounds had all but healed again. That task was easier than he anticipated, but at least it had been somewhat of a challenge. He was starting to get used to the role he had filled as an errand boy, but he could think of it as even being an assassin for the prince. Marek took the elevator up to his apartment and took off the trench coat and put his weapons away. There was still a few hours left in the night, and he figured he would see if he got another message from that strange contact of his.

Sure enough there was a message in his inbox, saying 'Meeting our demons'. Not a bad title since it was almost fitting for someone in his position. The message only contained one line, "Let us gather at our last round, when the demons come out tomorrow." He found the message in itself clever, since he could actually decipher its meaning. The contact of his wanted him to meet tomorrow at sundown at the bar named "The Last Round" which was only two blocks from his apartment. The only odd thing was how he had found out about his success at his previous job, but in this world, news could travel quickly he has found out.

Unfortunately, whoever it was wanted to meet tomorrow, so he would have to rest for the rest of the night and then find out what this person wanted. The suspense was killing him, so to say. With the night all but gone, Marek walked over to his room and lay on his bed for the rest of the night and through the morning.

The next night, Marek was kind of excited to find out who this person was that was playing these childish games and talking in riddles. Once again, he put on the trench coat and only brought his sword with him. He doubted if anyone would try to kill him in a public place, but it was best to have some form of defense with him. You never know what is out there.

He made his way down to the Last Round and walked in the bar. Inside there was loud punk rock music blaring out of the speakers, only a few drunks telling stories of things that never happened. He didn't know what to look for, so he just walked in and sat down at one of the tables, just waiting for something to catch his attention.

He sat there for almost two hours, ant nothing happened. He was beginning to worry that he figured that last riddle wrong. A few more guys walked into the bar, but they all just sat at the bar and ordered their drinks. Marek just figured that he would sit there for another hour or two before he left. He turned and looked out the window of the bar to see the people walking outside when he heard it.

"Glad to see you showed up. At least you have proven yourself capable of thinking deeper than the surface. You would be surprised to see the number of kindred who could not interpret my messages."

Marek turned around to see the guy standing at the head of the table looking at him. He stood slightly taller than Marek himself and had long black hair. He also wore a pair of glasses that were at the tip of his nose, like an old librarian.

"Yeah well, I like to think outside the box. Please, sit down. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?"

"The name is Beckett, and I am what you might call a historian, of sorts. I like to collect the information that can be used to debunk many of the kindred myths"

"Why the cryptic messages?"

"You see, I had to test the intelligence of these new ones. If they had a high enough ability to solve my riddles, then they certainly earned the right to have an intelligent conversation with me."

"In your second message, you said something about a 'sacrificial lamb.' What does that mean?"

"Well, I am not sure you knew this, but the prince loves to send the young ones to their final death by giving them suicidal missions. But I'm glad to see that you have passed his most recent test, and that hopefully means that my knowledge won't be wasted on you."

"I don't see how that was a suicidal mission. It was pretty easy to infiltrate that building."

"I'm glad you think so. Not many in your situation would have found that situation so easy to navigate. So tell me, what do you know about this society so far?"

"Not much really. All I have to do is follow orders and things will turn out pretty good. At least that's what it has been like so far."

"What you need to learn is that there is more than what the prince tells you to do. You need to find a way to do things for yourself and not for someone else. As you also need to find things like information out for yourself, so that you have more power over those who don't have that information. You will soon find out that information on others is worth a lot in our society, and that is why the Nosferatu are so powerful. They have ways of finding out the things we don't want them to know."

"You know, I've heard that before."

"That doesn't make that fact any less true."

"So what is it that you want me to know Beckett? There must have been a reason you sent those messages to me and you wanting to meet me. Just tell me what you wanted me to know."

Beckett looked a little uncomfortable, "Alright then. I see you do in fact have great deductive skills. The fact that I wanted you to know is that I believe that there is something big going to happen in this city. If I were you, I would get out as fast as you could so that whatever it is doesn't affect you."

"That's it? What is that supposed to be, another of your cryptic messages?"

"No, not at all. Ever since a few nights ago, there has been great unrest in this city. And it is not just me or a small minority of us. Many of the kindred in our city have felt that there is something wrong in the night air."

"Well thanks Beckett. If something comes up, I'll be sure to be extremely careful."

"I hope what I said isn't lost on you. Perhaps you will grasp the meaning of this warning. Good night, young one."

With that Beckett gathered himself up and left the bar very quickly. Marek just sat there, confused at the whole conversation. It seemed to him as though Beckett had something more to say, but he could not get it out. Whatever, it probably didn't concern him at all. Marek left the bar soon after Beckett and headed back to his apartment. After the past few days, he felt like he deserved a rest so he just went up to his bedroom and collapsed on his bed. The whole day, and then night passed and Marek just spent the whole time in an unconscious state.


	5. Hunters Revenge

Marek woke up after about three days worth of lying there like that. The whole time, he just thought about Beckett had told him. He didn't know what it all meant, and the whole situation that he was in was not looking good if what Beckett said was true. If things turned out that way, then fuck all of Lodin's politics and laws; he would do this all on his own if he had to.

It had been a few nights, so Marek thought it best to check his e-mail and see what was going on. His inbox came up on the screen, and he saw that he had two messages. One from Lodin and another from someone named Maria. Of course he remembered her from that night a long time ago, but she said that they would not be in contact. He figured that it was another e-mail about conspiracy, so he saved that one for last. Marek went straight to Lodin's message and opened it.

"Good job with the hunters. So far, we have had no reports of any other kine aware of your deeds that night, which is always good. As appreciation for a job well done, there is a small token of my appreciation in your mailbox. We will be in touch again. –Lodin."

It was another damn thank you note. He was tired of his bullshit fronts, but he paid well, and Marek wasn't going to question a source of income. Now that he was annoyed with Lodin's letter, he was ready to open whatever Maria had sent him. It was sent today, so he figured that the message was urgent.

"If I didn't have such important information to tell you, I would have said this straight out, but your e-mail is being watched. Take the cell phone in your mailbox and I will call you with the location of our meeting. I fear that they have gotten to you already, and there are still many important facts that I know Lodin has left out in all his speeches. Remember to grab the phone and answer it at midnight, sharp. –Sire"

Another damn cryptic message. These people make a living out of being paranoid. He figured he would humor her though, and so he walked out of the door and opened his mailbox. Walking inside, he saw the money clip Lodin left him holding two hundred dollars, and a small black flip cell phone. Marek just set the phone on the table and sat around in his apartment waiting for the phone call. The clock's hands ran past eleven, then half past, and finally to midnight. Then midnight came and went, and still no phone call from Maria.

Finally at fifteen past, the phone rang loudly on the table. Marek contemplated not picking it up, but he walked over and answered the phone on the third ring.

"Hello?"

_"Hello, Marek. Listen to me. You have to get out of the building. They are coming for you."_

"Huh? Wait, what do you mean?"

_"No time, you must get out, now! We'll talk when you get out of the building. Take everything you need with you."_

Then she hung up the phone. He would have thought she was pulling his leg, but she sounded as though she was scared shitless, so he hurried up and grabbed everything. Marek gathered up his cash, now totaling about seventeen hundred bucks, and he put on the trench coat holding his colts and all their ammo. Lastly, he strapped the katana on his back, and that was about everything that he needed from the apartment.

Marek walked outside of his room and headed over to the elevator. He pressed the button, and the elevator started to run, but then suddenly shut off. The light went off on the up button, and he pressed it again and it didn't work again. He was starting to think that the whole thing was real. Turning around, Marek then headed over to the stairway, and as he did the overhead lights in the halls went out one by one. Running now, he entered the stairs and started to walk down, but he heard some other footsteps coming up. He looked down and saw a few dozen men walking up to where he was. Hunters.

Now he was totally fucked. They had the jump on him this time, and he didn't know of any way out but up. So up he went as he climbed the stairs and came out on the roof. Marek searched frantically fro someway off the roof, but on two sides the buildings were too high to reach, and the other was too far away of a jump, even for him. The only way out was to fight his way through the hunters, and there was no guarantee that he would come out of this ordeal still living.

Quickly he pulled out both colts and made sure the magazines were full, and then he just stood on the roof facing the door coming up. Waiting for about two minutes for them to come up, and it felt like an eternity to him. Finally the footsteps in the stairwell became louder as they approached the door. As soon as the door opened, Marek opened fire and the hunters that started to pour out the door were just mown down by the dual colts. He finally clicked out of ammo and had killed about ten of them, but they just kept coming.

Marek dodged to the side while reloading his guns so as to avoid their bullets. Hiding behind an air conditioner on the roof, Marek blindly opened fire of whomever he saw until that magazine was out. Finally the roof was deathly quiet, and Marek just holstered his guns. Looking around, Marek counted fourteen dead bodies, but something registered in the back of his mind that the body count was not high enough for the amount of people that were coming up his stairwell.

Cautiously Marek walked over and entered the doorway to go down. He looked down and saw that no one was in the stairs, so he figured that it was safe to go down. Halfway down the stairs, an explosion shook the entire building and Marek almost lost his footing. Then it had just hit him, they were going to burn the building down with him in it, and fire does not mix well with his kind. They were really determined to kill him, even if they got the local law enforcement involved. He guessed that they were really pissed about his raid on their building, but they couldn't know that it was him that did that job, or even where he lived, could they?

He ran as fast as he could down the stairs, so he wouldn't get trapped too high up by the flames. As he got to about the third floor, the building shook violently, and he saw the flames down on the floor below. That was as far as he could get, so he ran through the hallway trying to find a way out. Something on the wall caught his eye, and he stopped and saw that it was a fire exit plan. The map showed that there was a fire escape in the apartment on the far end of the hall.

Marek broke down the door and was confronted by a wall of flames. The whole room was filled with flames, and the fire was also starting to break through the floor below him, which didn't leave him much choice. Marek pulled up his trench coat over his whole body and head and ran as fast as he could using his Celerity through the flames. The fire licked his coat, but didn't burn through, but his feet and legs were getting cooked from running through. He reached the window and didn't bother to open it; he just dove right through and fell down the three stories to the ground below.

His landing wasn't that bad because he had landed on a pile of trash, but it still hurt, and the burns to his legs were pretty severe. Over all though, it wasn't as bad as he thought it could have been, and he was still alive, if to smite those bastards. Marek struggled to stand up a little bit, and he hobbled down the alley to the open streets. It was extremely painful to walk, but that was because fire is something that he shouldn't be playing with. He found a bench on the sidewalk and turned to look at the building. The hunters had all cleared off, and the fire company was already trying to put out the flames.

Then a car pulled in front of Marek and rolled down its window. The car was a fairly new looking Cadillac Deville and the face inside looked very familiar. It was Maria inside driving the car, and she looked out at him sitting there on the bench.

"Nice to see you made it out alive. Sorry I couldn't help, but I was across town when I heard about the hunters attack on you. Come on, get in. It is still not safe here."

Marek hobbled over to the passenger side of the car and got in, and she took off down the streets. He could already feel himself starting to heal a little bit, but the burns still hurt like hell.

"How did you know about this?"

"I had a friend of mine who happens to be a Nosferatu follow you for the past few days. It is funny how they seem to always disappear in the dark."

"Then how did the hunters find me, or even know that I was the one who trashed their last meeting?"

"I don't know, and that scares me. It seems someone may have tipped them off about you, and there are not many of us who know who you are or what you have been doing."

"Where to now? My apartment is trashed."

"We can head over to my haven for the night. There is a lot of information that I need to tell you, and now is not the best time to do so."

"Can you tell me what in the hell is going on here?"

"All in due time my childe."

They drove down the highway for about twenty minutes until they were in the outskirts of the city. She parked the car in front of a small house that didn't have anything special about it. There were no other cars in the driveway and the house was completely dark. They exited the car, and she even gave Marek a hand in walking over to the door. She opened it and there were five other people in the house, either sitting at a table playing cards or just standing around bullshitting with one another. One of them waved his hand and came over.

"Hey Maria, got another one for tonight?"

"No Karl, he's already one of us, and he just survived an attack by a large group of hunters."

Karl looked Marek over and saw the burn marks. "Damn, what the hell did they do to ya kid?"

"They kind of burned the building down with me in it."

"Ouch. Gotta love fire kid."

"That's enough Karl, we have business to discuss, and he'll be staying the day here."

"Sure, fine, whatever you need babe."

They walked away from Karl and headed down the stairs and into the basement. Down here there were two small couches and a table between them, and a whole bunch of cardboard boxes all around. They both sat down and Marek unloaded his questions on her.

"Alright now, can you please tell me just what the hell is going on here?"

"Alright, but you won't like what you are about to hear. You have entered this society in the middle of a war, and one that has been going on for a century. The Sabbat and the Camarilla are the two main sects involved here, and they are fighting over control of the city and even the whole country on a larger scale."

"And which side are we?"

"The people you see here are on neither side, but the ones here who are 'ruled' by Lodin are the Camarilla. They are comprised of the seven clans that you know about, even though the Gangrel usually don't get involved with these things. The Sabbat are a sect who are more open than the Camarilla, and they turn many more humans than the Camarilla do. Their main groups are known as the Tzimisce and the Setites. Both groups are not ones you want to go against in your condition.

Another thing that you need to know is that you are stronger than you know, because that bastard Lodin doesn't want to tell you, damn Ventrue bitch. You are actually very high up in the hierarchy of the bloodlines, and that is all because of me. Each step is known as a generation, and so far the generations number all the way in the teens thanks to these modern times.

Legend says that our bloodlines start with Caine, the biblical brother killer. Then it is said that he himself made two others, known as the second generation. Most believe that these two groups would posses god like powers, but both generations have died long ago. The oldest generation that is acknowledged in these times is the third generation, known as the antediluvians. There were thirteen of them in all, and each one founded each of the clans. Legend says that they have been in a state of torpor, or what humans may refer to as a coma, for a millennia. As each descendant turns another mortal, they become another generation, and with each generation, the powers passed down from the elders are diminished in the blood.

"What does all this have to do with me?"

"You see, I am a fifth generation Toreador, my sire being Helena who herself was fourth generation. This means that you are a sixth generation Toreador and that once your skills are developed you are more powerful than Lodin himself. One thing about him is that he fears those of higher generation than him, and he does what he can to remove them from the society once their job is complete.

He tries whatever methods he can to kill them, and that is why most of us either avoid Lodin or Become so invaluable to him that he can't afford to have us killed. But he also has an egomaniacal fantasy of performing diablerie on an antediluvian, which by kindred laws is punishable by death, but since he is the one who enforces the laws, he would not get punished."

"Diablerie?"

"It means to drink the blood of a kindred who is a higher generation than you until he is dry. In doing so, you gain the powers of the kindred you diablarized."

"Damn, and so you suppose he wants to do that to an antediluvian?"

"It would seem logical, but since no one knows where one is, he will just have to do with where he is."

"Tomorrow night, I'll go back to the mansion and live there. I'll make sure that I am so valuable to him that Lodin can't afford to kill me.

"One more thing you should know. The Sabbat as a whole fear the antediluvians. They would do everything they could to destroy an antediluvian as so as they found one, because of their fanatical superstitions and beliefs."

"What superstitions?"

"The Sabbat as well as many other kindred believes that if an antediluvian awoke and walked the earth again, that it would be the start of Gehenna, or basically kindred word for what the kine call Armageddon, the end of the world, you know."

"Then that is why Beckett was here in the city."

"Beckett? He was here?"

"Yeah, I spoke with him a few nights before you called me. Do you know Beckett?"

"Most every kindred across the country knows Beckett, he is a Gangrel who goes around trying to find information to solve kindred myths. It is strange that he would show up in New York."

"Yeah well, he started to warn me to leave this city as fast as I could and that something major was going to happen. I just thought it was all bull shit, but…"

"Hold on, he told you to leave the city. I wonder what he has found out. Usually he is fairly accurate with his explanations and predictions."

"You think that the end of the world is going to happen?"

"Who knows, other than Beckett himself? Perhaps all that time alone has made him paranoid. It would be a shame, a great intellect like that gone to waste. But you should still take his words very seriously. As for Lodin, keep an eye on him. If he tries to have you killed again, you are always welcome here. It isn't as good as his mansion, but we do fairly well here.

"Thanks, one last question."

"Sure."

"Have anything for these damn burns. They aren't healing very fast and they hurt like shit."

She laughed, "Of course, I'll get the medical supplies. You will find out things like fire, sunlight, and wounds caused by super naturals don't heal very fast. It just comes with the territory."


End file.
